green and healthy

with the anticipation that a baby will be joining us sometime in the (hopefully near) future, we've regained our passion for eating more healthfully.  we hope to get on the path to good habits before our family goes through the change of routines so these healthy trends will be in place as firmly as second nature.  we go through spurts where we are really good about what we eat, and then we go through a slump where all we want is to consume donuts.  we've switched to purchasing organics (whenever possible) and are attempting to eat our weight in vegetables.  we're continuing to only shop the perimeter of the grocery store - avoiding prepackaged foods and anything that is overly processed.  i've been inspired by other's healthful eating and searching for recipes to incorporate into our diets.

melodie inspired me to try out the smoothie.  i've never had a smoothie before, and its honestly just because i am nervous about all of the sugar that i thought went into them.   her adapted recipe for the "green smoothie" contained no added sugar and seemed like something that my body would tolerate while being diabetic.  inspired by her blogpost: 
melodie's inspiring recipe
i added the needed items to the grocery list and wanted to start this week off right by making a smoothie for breakfast today.

i made my smoothie with the following ingredients:

• 1/3 cup organic frozen blueberries
• 1/3 cup organic frozen raspberries
• 1/3 cup organic frozen strawberries
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups spinach
• 1 banana

just like melodie, i added all of the berries and water to the blender and whizzed it up on the frappe setting.  once that was blended i added spinach - enough to hardly mash the lid back on - and had to pull out a spatula to get it down into the berry mixture enough to blend up the spinach.  once the smoothie turned from a wonderful berry color to an army green, i knew we were blended.  then i broke up the banana and added it to the machine.  i gave it one last frappe and we were done. 

i asked will if he wanted some - maybe just a sip?  he decided he would stick with his kashi cereal for today.  the smoothie was a lot more tasty than i thought it would be.  the overwhelming flavor was the banana, then the raspberries.  the texture of the banana - which put it a bit on the slimy side - was the only thing i was not in love with.  when i make one tomorrow i think i am going to try less banana and replace part of that with some apple or grapes.  i enjoyed my breakfast and drank every last drop!  the blood sugar did not spike like i was worried about and will says he will be brave and test it out tomorrow, so hopefully we're on to something here.